Sailboats and Tractors

Even though fall is one of my favorite seasons, I find myself missing the sailboats on the bay when I drive by. It's one of the first things I look for in the spring, so the disappearance of them is a little sad for me. It means winter is coming. They are calling for snow for tomorrow already! Not ready for that!

Over at The Paper Players this week they are looking for clean and simple masculine birthday cards, so I pulled out an old sailboat stamp and this is what I came up with. I love brown and blue together.

 

I made another one in honor of my husband, who really wants a new tractor and is trying to find a way to justify one. Maybe I'll give him this card because I think this is as close as he's going to get!

photos by Bekah Joan

Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Brenda

World Card Making Day

                                                    

Yesterday was World Card Making Day, so I did my part and made cards. This first one is for the challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches using this sketch.

                     

      

I've had these doilies around for about 6 months and haven't wanted to use them because they are so pretty and I was afraid I wouldn't like what I did and they would be wasted. Plus I am just a pack rat (don't want to say hoarder!). 

Over at Unscripted Sketches there was a challenge using this sketch.

                               

   

Here is my take on it. Since part of the purpose of WCMD is to start our holiday cards, I figured I'd use a Christmas theme. I love the SU Button Buddies set.

I did another Christmas theme for CAS(E) this Sketch! using this sketch.

  

I found these stickers at ACMoore in a clearance bin and though the would be perfect for this challenge. They are really sparkly and fun!

Those were my cards for WCMD. Thanks for looking.

Brenda

                                       

Halloween

I've been busy making items for a craft fair when I came across Curtain Call's challenge to make something spooky! Well, that fit right in with what I'm making, so I decided to post the "spooky" projects I've been working on.

After I made the tea cup the other day, I started thinking that they would be cute for Halloween with some candy in them.  I really like the way they turned out.

cs: black, cajun craze
dp: canvas home basics
stamps: SU  Googly Ghouls, Stampabilities,
Recollection
Candy: Hershey's ;)            

I also used the SU matchbox die to make up these two.

Cs: vanilla
DP: Canvas Home Basics
Stamps: SU Googly Ghouls, Recollection
Recollections Washi tape
Sb die

I absolutely love the little mummy! He is so cute!

Photos by Bekah Joan

I'm going to make a few more designs (I hope!), but I thought I would post these two for now. And I'll try not to eat all the candy!

Thanks for stopping by.

Brenda

Tea

I love tea. With the mornings being cooler I get to enjoy hot tea again. My oldest daughter enjoys it too. While she likes all sorts of flavored tea, I'm a black tea sort of girl. Nothing fancy, just a good hot cup with milk and sugar.

I made up this cute teacup that I saw on Pinterest. There were no instructions (don't you hate that!) so I played around with it and came up with this. Over at Dynamic Duos, they are having a challenge with pink so I decided to go with those colors for the teacup.

cs: blushing bride, primrose petals, ink: SU primrose petals, stamp: IO

I'll post the instuctions later, once I get them figured out a little more. I'm still working on the bottom and how to hold it together better. I think it would be cute filled with candy or tea or hot chocolate... the possibilities are endless!  

I also decided to make up some tea bag holders. I think they will make nice gifts. Here is one of them.

      

There were a couple other challenges that I made a card for this week. One was over at Mojo Monday and the other was at CASology. The cue card for CASology was autumn and this is the sketch from Mojo Monday:

           

Here is my card for those two.

Photos by Bekah Joan

Sorry for such a long post! Hope you enjoyed a nice cup of tea while looking at it! 

Brenda

Summer's End

Well, it's official at our house. Summer is over. We closed the pool yesterday. It was sad watching the water drain out and putting the cover on. Even though I didn't use it a lot this summer, I will miss it, mostly because I know what comes next.

SNOW!!!!

I know, I know. Don't rush things. Autumn is first. But I needed a good lead in for the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge over at Always Playing With Paper. Snowmen!

So I went digging through my stash to see what snowman stamps I had, and came up with one I bought on ebay a couple months ago. Here is what I came up with.

I made a recessed window using a tutorial over at splitcoast stampers. I did it from memory, but I probably should have gone and looked again because I struggled with it a little. It's colored in with prismacolor pencils and gamsol blending solution, and the backgroud sky is inked using a sponge dauber. I don't think it shows up well in the picture, but I put liquid pearls on the stars.

There was a sketch challengeover at Paper Players that I did too. Here is the card I made for that one.

I love these stamps from Inky Antics. When you open them up they have honeyconb paper inside that just adds a nice touch. I think they would be great for a kids birthday.

photos by Bekah Joan

Thanks for stopping by today.

Brenda

Lunch Box Notes

My youngest daughter loves to write notes to put in her dad's lunches. She writes them with a sharpie on his sandwhich and snack bags. It's a nice way to let him know she's thinking about him, and I'm sure he enjoys it. I used to do it before I had kids, but when they came I barely had time to pack a lunch for him, let alone put a note in. It just fell by the wayside as they grew older, so I'm glad she's doing it.


The other day, while I was browsing through Pinterest, I came upon a cute idea for lunch box notes over at Simply Stamped using Papertrey Ink product.  I don't have any of their stuff, although my wishlist is very long, so I tried to think of a way to do something similar. Here is what I came up with.

photo by Bekah Joan

I don't have their nice die, but I do have a cuttlebug scorer that I snagged at a yard sale, so I cut a bunch of cardstock and scored it at the top. I then had a great time going through all my stamps to see what kind of notes I could come up with. I bundled them all together and put them in a little notebook that you can tear them out of and drop in someone's lunch box.  This is one of the sets I made that I'll be selling at the craft show. I have two others that I'll post later. 

It was a lot of fun making these up. Almost makes me wish my kids were in school so I could drop them in their lunches. Maybe I'll try putting one in my hubby's.

Thanks for stopping by.

Brenda

Friendship

The last of the girls have left from the wrangler reunion my youngest daughter hosted. A bunch of girls she worked with at a ranch this summer came up for a sleepover. A couple of them even traveled 3 hours to get here. They ate, played games, ate, stayed up late talking, watched a movie, ate, played more games, ate... well, you get the idea. I think they had a good time.

It got me thinking about friendships and how important they are. Where would we be without those special people in our lives who are with us through all the ups and downs, the good and the bad, and who love us even when we don't feel lovable?

As I watched and interacted with the girls, I thought about a stamp that I have had for years and has never seen ink. I bought it when my oldest was quite young (she's almost 20 now), thinking it would make a cute scrapbook page. So I decided to ink it up and make a card for girlfriends.

I just love the girls walking in step looking like they're having a great time. I colored them in with prismacolor pencils. The stamp is from Delafield Stamp Co. and the friends stamp is SU Love Matters. Paper is Pumpkin Pie and Pacific Point.

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. Such a simple one and yet so vesatile. I made up another card using it too.

photos by Bekah Joan

This one uses the SU set Evergreen. I stamped the tree in Garden Green on white and the words on vellum in Stazon black. The dp is SU and Paper Studio. Black brads finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Brenda